Owner's manual
14
Model 845-M Programmer’s 
Manual 
V1.1 2011
Parameters 
Most 
commands 
require a parameter to be 
specified. 
The 
parameters 
must be 
separated 
from 
the 
header by a "white 
space". Permissible parameters 
are 
numerical values, 
Boolean 
parameters, 
text, 
character strings 
and 
block 
data. The type of parameter required for 
th
e 
respective command 
and 
the 
permissible 
range of 
values 
are 
specified 
in the command description. 
Numerical values Numerical values can 
be entered in any form, i.e. with 
sign, decimal 
point and 
exponent. 
Values exceeding 
the 
resolution 
of the instrument are rounded up or down. The 
mantissa 
may 
comprise 
up to 
255 characters, 
the 
values 
must be in the value range 
–9.9E37 
to
9.9E37. 
The exponent 
is 
introduced by  an 
"E" 
or "e". Entry of the exponent alone 
is 
not 
allowed.
Units In the 
case 
of 
physical 
quantities, the unit 
can 
be entered. 
Permissible 
unit 
prefixes 
are G (giga), 
MA (mega), MHZ are 
also permissible), 
K (kilo), M  (milli), U 
(micro) 
and N (nano). If 
the 
unit 
is missing, 
the 
basic 
unit 
is 
used. 
Boolean Parameters Boolean parameters  represent 
two 
states. 
The ON state 
(logically 
true) is 
represented 
by ON or a 
numerical 
value unequal to 0. The 
OFF 
state 
(logically 
false) is 
represented 
by 
OFF 
or the 
numerical 
value 0. ON or 
OFF is 
returned by a query. 
Hierarchical Command Structure 
All 
SCPI commands,  
except the 
common commands, 
are organized in a 
hierarchical 
structure 
similar 
to the inverted tree file 
structure used 
in most 
computers. 
The 
SCPI 
standard 
refers 
to 
this 
structure 
as 
“the 
Command Tree.” 
The 
command 
keywords that 
correspond 
to the major instrument 
c
ontrol
functions 
are located at the top of the 
command 
tree. The command keywords for the 
Model 
845-M
SCPI command  
set are shown 
below.
:ABORt 
:DIAGnostic 
:DISPlay 
:INITiate 
:OUTput 
SOURce 
:STATus 










